Pre-amp recommendation?

[Russ]

This house has several long cable runs from my AD C5 and I've had drop-outs on occasion this summer; there's one local transmitter and the rest are 50+ mi. away. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapp ... 53aec43bde

[tigerbangs]

The AntennasDirect C5 is a VHF-only antenna: most of your local TV stations operate on UHF, and the C% alone would probably be inadequate for your needs in that situation. Are you looking for the Sacramento stations? If oyu are: they are nearly 50 miles from your location, and I would suggest adding a UHF antenna like am AntennasDirect XG-91 and a dual-input preamplifier like an AntennaCraft 10G211, which will both combine the signals from the two antennas and amplify the signal to insure enough signal for your situation. Good Luck.

[Russ]

Thanks for the antenna suggestion. I got the C5 last year and normally have good UHF from Sacramento, with some off the back end from Chico. It's not the ideal set up, but a compromise made for appearance purposes, and it is adequate for my TV viewing when conditions are right, which is 95-99% of the time. I plan to stick with the C5 only and would like to know whether a pre-amp might be helpful for those times when the signal is compromised, and if so, which pre-amp I should go for; is the CM Titan 7777, which I believe you routinely recommend, a good choice for my circumstances, or will the local transmitter (see TV Fool plot) overload that model? Thanks again for your help.

[tigerbangs]

A pramplifier is not going to solve your problems: the issue is not signal strength, but an issue of multipath, which the C% cannot solve for UHF.

[Russ]

Thank you, T'bangs.

[Russ]

Me again. The odd thing with this C5 is that when I do get drop-outs, like I did today, it's often the VHF channel - 9, 6.1 virtual from Sac. The UHF stations are constant. Anyway, if I were to go for the antenna combo and pre-amp combo you suggested, would the pre-amp be compromised by the signal coming from the transmitter on my TV fool plot at 15 miles? Thanks again.

[tigerbangs]

While many people like the C%, I have no first-hand experience with it. It appears to be a scaled-up version of the UHF-only C series from AntennasDirect, Based on it's specs, I would think that it may be a bit lightweight for VHF reception at a distance of 50 miles from the transmitters.

If you are sending TV signals to multiple TV sets, with long cable runs, you must have more than a simple splitter on this antenna system in order to see much TV signal at all. If you don't: then a preamp or distribution amplifier will likely help you to some degree. I am loathe to oversell the use of amplification because it is not a cure-all, nor will it solve most of the reception problems for which they are sold.

Amplification is indicated when running long cable lines (in excess of 75') and/or where there are more than 2 TV sets to be run from one antenna. We have to assume that your antenna signal is solid in order for any type of amplification to be effective. I am still suspicious of the C5 as an all-channel antenna, however, we have to remember that UH signals have much higher field strength than comparable VHF stations in near and medium distance situations.

Compared to the old analog days, digital signals can be very much weaker than analog signals to get a reliable picture, but digital signals can be adversely affected by a number of different kinds of interference, including multipath, FM overload, and ignition noise (especially on VHF channels). Unlike analog, where the symptoms would manifest themselves in degraded picture quality, digital TV simply becomes intermittent or disappears altogether, so we have to anticipate these issues when designing an antenna system. I always prefer to be conservative and over-design the antenna system to allow for aging and multipath rejection.

In your situation, I suggest that you try the AntennaCraft preamplifier that I have suggested: it is a high-input preamp and shouldn't overload on strong local signals. While I like the Channel Master Titan 7777, it will likely overload in your situation, and I would rather see a higher input capable preamp in your system. If you want to upgrade your antenna system, I would suggest using a UHF yagi-type antenna like an AntennasDirect XG-91 along with a yagi-type VHF antenna like a Winegard HD-1713 or possibly the smaller HD-6713

[Russ]

Thanks - appreciate very much the thoughtful response.

[Russ]

I'm not finding the pre-amp model you suggested at the antennacraft site:

http://www.antennacraft.net/Antennas/An ... fiers.html

[tigerbangs]

http://www.antennacraft.net/Antennas/An ... fiers.html